BY 


Hon.  Daniel  F.  Cohalan 

Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 


JULY,  1919 


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2T2  Mason  Opera  Htuu^ 

^S  ANQELHS,  CAD 


Pubiished  by  the 

Friends  of  Irish  Freedom 

280  BROADWAY  NEW  YORK 


FOREWORD 

By  Hon,  John  Jerome  Rooney, 
Fomier  Chief  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Claims  of  New  York  State 

A  word  about  the  author  of  the  following  remarkable  pamphlet. 
Without  doubt  the  paper  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  unique  polemics 
yet  produced  by  Ireland's  most  recent  struggle  for  independence. 

To  the  Irish  race  in  America,  and  the  friends  of  Ireland's  cause,  the 
author,  Daniel  Florence  Cohalan,  stands  out  as  a  strong  national  and 
international  figure.  Above  all  else,  he  is  to  them  a  100  per  cent  Ameri- 
can, whose  fight  for  Ireland's  liberty  grows  directly  out  of  his  American 
character  and  principles. 

He  is  a  native  of  the  State  of  New  York,  born  at  Middletown.  He 
is  in  the  full  vigor  of  middle  age.  Of  the  pure  Celtic  strain  of  the 
"fighting  race,"  members  of  his  family  have  been  in  every  war  for  America 
from  the   Revolution  on. 

He  is  a  graduate  of  Manhattan  College,  of  New  York  City.  Admitted 
to  the  Bar  in  1888,  for  many  years  he  practiced  law  in  New  York.  He 
became  interested  in  politics,  and,  over  a  course  of  years,  wrote  the 
State  and  City  platforms  of  one  of  the  great  parties.  In  the  year  1911 
he  was  appointed  to  the  Supreme  Court  bench  of  the  State  of  New  York 
and,  in  the  following  election,  he  was  elected  to  a  full  term  of  fourteen 
years. 

From  the  days  of  his  youth  he  was  interested  in  the  cause  of  Ireland, 
and  constantly  worked  and  spoke  in  her  behalf.  He  has  visited  Ireland 
many  times;  has  a  beautiful  country  place  near  Cork,  and,  oddly  enough, 
knows  England  almost  as  well  as  he  knows  Ireland.  He  has  been  many 
times  a  visitor  of  both  countries  and  is  a  close  student  of  their  histories. 

No  man  in  this  country  is  better  acquainted  with  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  England,  and  no  one  is  more  familiar  than  he  with  the 
methods  of  conquest  and  exploitation  by  which  the  world-wide  British 
Empire  has  been  built  up. 

He  has  made  a  complete  study  of  the  economic  factors  underlying 
the  struggle  between  England  and  Ireland.  This  arsenal  of  knowledge, 
joined  with  a  direct,  simple,  forceful  style  of  speaking,  makes  him  one 
of  the  most  convincing  and  powerful  speakers  in  the  United  States.  His 
logic  is  inexorable.  This  quality,  joined  with  great  legal  attainments,  has 
given  him  a  reputation  as  one  of  the  soundest  and  most  capable  Judges 
of  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Justice  Cohalan  is  today  the  leader  of  the  Irish  race  and  the  Irish 
cause  in  America. 

To  him  is  chiefly  due  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  more  recent  great 
Irish  movement  in  America.  It  was  he  who  started  the  formation  of  the 
Friends  of  Irish  Freedom,  the  national  organization  which  today  is  to  be 
found  in  every  State  of  the  Union. 

He  presided  over  the  great  Irish  Race  Convention  in  Philadelphia, 
February  last,  to  which  over  five  thousand  delegates  were  accredited. 
The  resolutions  at  the  Convention  were  presented  by  Cardinal  Gibbons, 
of  Baltimore,  and  were  seconded  by  a  Jewish  Rabbi,  an  Episcopal  Minister 
and  a  Presbyterian  Minister. 

To  Justice  Cohalan  the  claim  of  Ireland  admits  of  no  compromise: 
The  Irish  Republic,  established  by  the  will  of  the  vast  majority  of  the 
Irish  people,   must  be  recognized. 

That  solution,  and  that  only,  can  satisfy  the  people  of  Ireland,  and, 
therefore,  the  American  friends  of  Ireland  and  of  Liberty  throughout  the 
world,  and  contribute  to  the  making  of  a  just  and  permanent  peace  for 
all   mankind. 

New  York,  July,   1919. 


URL       ( 


THE  INDICTMENT 

By  Hon.  Daniel  F.  Cohalan,  Justice  Supreme  Court,  New  York 

The  great  trouble  with  the  mass  of  the  people  of  America  on  the 
question  of  Ireland  is  their  viewpoint  thereon.  Without  intending  to  be 
unfair,  they  take  for  granted  the  justice  of  the  English  view.  They  find 
England — largely  the  mistress  of  the  world  and  in  many  ways  admitted  to 
be  the  leader  of  inodern  civilization — in  possession  of  Ireland. 

They  find,  according  to  histories  mainly  written  by  England's  friends, 
that  she  has  been  thus  in  Ireland  for  centuries,  and  they  take  it  for 
granted  that  she  must  be  there  legally;  that  she  is  there  as  a  matter  of 
right.  They  take  for  granted,  too,  that  in  the  evolution  of  civilization, 
in  the  making  of  history,  that  conditions  required  her  to  be  there,  and 
that  England's  claim  to  the  overlordship  of  Ireland  is  a  valid  and  just 
claim. 

This  view  is  strengthened  by  all  the  literature  which  most  Americans 
ever  read.  The  so-called  English  literature  with  which  Americans  come 
in  contact  usually  rates  England  as  the  one  great  power  which,  through 
the  centuries  past,  has  been  carrying  aloft  the  torch  of  justice  and  prog- 
ress into  the  dark  corners  of  the  world.  So,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  many  Americans  are  prone  to  think  of  England  as  the  guiding  star 
of  civilization,  educating  and  lifting  up  down-trodden  suil'ering  peoples 
that  have  been  tyrannized  over  by  their  national  tyrants. 

This  is  the  view  of  England  that  Englishmen  like  to  have  the  world 
take  of  their  country.  Because  of  this  viewpoint,  it  is  extremely  difficult 
to  get  before  the  American  jury — fair  as  it  intends  to  be — the  actual  facts 
of  history,  not  to  speak  of  the  present-day  conditions,  as  they  exist  in 
Ireland. 

The  Dominating   Figures   in  England 

The  ordinary  American,  accustomed  to  giving  almost  all  of  his  time 
to  a  study  of  internal  conditions  of  his  own  country — so  far  as  his 
interest  leads  him  on — has  not  learned  to  differentiate  between  the  Eng- 
land which  is  and  the  England  that,  according  to  her  writers  and  poets, 
seems  to  be. 

He  has  not  come  to  understand  that  the  English  democracy  of  which 
he  hears  and  reads  so  much  has  little  reality  in  fact  in  government,  and 
that  England  still  continues  to  be  governed  by  a  handful  of  men,  represent- 
ing, with  but  few  exceptions,  the  same  small  group  of  titled  land-controll- 
ing families  that  have  governed  England  since  the  days  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  if  not,  in  fact,  much  longer.  Since  the  downfall  of  continental 
aristocracies  this  condition  is  true  of  England  more  than  of  any  other 
country. 

The  dominating  figures  in  England  today — those  in  actual  power — are 
the  Cecils  and  their  relations.  Lloyd  George  or  some  other  figure  that 
has  come  to  represent  democracy  or  radicalism,  if  j^ou  will,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  is  put  forward  as  the  Premier  of  governing  authority.  But 
the  will  that  dominates,  controls  and  finally  directs  the  policies  and 
actions  of  England,  is  that  of  the  master  spirit  Cecil,  no  matter  which 
member   of   that   family   or   its   connections    it   may   happen    to    be. 

In  the  last  generation  it  was  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury,  former  Premier 
of  England,  the  man  who  said,  some  forty  years  ago,  that  England  and 
America  were  natural  rivals  in  every  court  and  in  ever)'  port;  the  man 
who  more  than  any  other — with  the  exception  of  Joseph  Chamberlain,  the 
great  radical  who  ratted  and  joined  the  forces  of  conservatism. — was 
responsible  for  the  destruction  of  the  two  little  Republics  in  South  Africa. 

It  was  this  same  Salisbury  who  said,  in  the  days  when  the  Irish  were 
carrying  everything  before  them  in  the  Parliamentary  fights  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  that  the  Irish  were  no  better  than  the  Hottentots  and  should 


receive  the  same  treatment.  It  was  the  same  man  who  represented 
England  in  the  Congress  of  Berlin  and  of  whom  Bismarck  said— because 
he  quit  when  opposed  by  superior  force — that  he  reminded  him  of  a  lath, 
painted  to  look  like  iron. 

Salisbury  was  aided  and  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Arthur  James 
Balfour,  who  became  Premier  of  England,  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
and  a  number  of  other  high-sounding  things,  but  who  has  never  been  able 
to  wipe  out  the  title  of  "Bloody  Balfour"  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
people  of  Ireland  when  he  was  Chief  Secretary  and,  among  other  acts, 
ordered  the  shooting,  if  necessary,  by  the  troops,  in  cold  blood,  of  the 
defenseless,   unarmed   people  of   Mitchelstown. 

Balfour  is  still  to  the  fore  and  is  probably  the  chief  governing  force 
in  England  today,  except  in  so  far  as  he  is  displaced  by  his  cousin,  Lord 
Robert  Cecil,  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Salisbury  and  father  of  the  proposed 
League  of  Nations — which  would,  if  it  became  effective,  undo  the  work 
of  the  Revolution  and  put  us  in  the  position  of  being  again  a  vassal 
state  of  England,  subject  to  the  control  of  the  Cecils  or  any  other  landed 
aristocracy  that  might,  in  the  future,  control  the  destinies  of  England 
and  the  world. 

These  are  types  of  the  men  who  dominate  England,  and,  through  her, 
control  the  British  Empire.  The  little  King  George  V,  first  cousin  to 
the  late  Emperor  of  the  Germans  and  the  Czar  of  the  Russians,  at  present 
represents  the  German  royal  family  as  King  of  England  and  Emperor 
of   India. 

He  rules  over  every  third  person  on  earth  and  over  almost  every 
third  square  mile  of  land  on  earth.  He  is  actuallj"-  master  of  all  the  seas 
and  is  at  the  head  of  a  government  more  powerful  than  any  which  ever 
before  existed  in  all  the  history  of  mankind. 

Englishmen  like  to  say  that  King  George  reigns  but  does  not  rule. 
That  is  true.  The  real  ruling  force  is  that  handful  of  aristocrats  who 
represent  the  landed  feudal  aristocracy  of  England  and  who  form  the 
most  absolute,  most  arbitrary  and  most  powerful  autocracy  the  world  has 
ever  seen. 

England  Makes  Other  Nations  Supply  the  Soldiers 

The  history  of  England  differs  from  that  of  every  other  country.  No 
other  country  before  her  has  reached  her  dominant  place  among  the 
Empires  of  the  earth.  Rome  approached  nearer  to  England  than  did  any 
other  country  in  similarity  of  methods  by  which  she  acquired  world  con- 
trol. Her  Imperial  motto,  "Divide  et  Impera,"  marked  the  policy  by 
which  she  subdued  almost  the  entire  world  of  her  day  and  ruled  the 
known  world  without  a  rival  for  centuries. 

But  Rome  acquired  most  of  her  power  through  her  own  soldiers.  The 
generals  who  led  her  armies  to  victory  were  of  Roman  blood;  the  soldiers 
who  swept  everything  before  them  on  the  field  of  battle  were  Roman 
legions,  w^ho  found  few  who  could  stand  before  them.  They  risked  their 
own  lives,  their  own  blood,  for  the  quarrels  of  their  country,  in  order  that 
her  will  might  be  imposed  upon  other  countries. 

England  has  improved  on  all  this.  She  follows  the  Roman  motto, 
but  because  she  leaves  the  control  of  the  policy  of  her  government  in  the 
hands  of  her  diplomats;  other  nations,  other  races,  are  made  to  supply 
the  generals  who  win  the  battles,  and  the  soldiers  who  bleed,  in  order 
that  England  may  grow  great. 

England's  Policy  Takes  Advantage  of  Friend  and  Foe 

This  policy  which  had  its  beginning  under  Henry  the  Eighth  has  been 
consistently  carried  forward,  subordinating  every  other  interest  to  that 
of  the  growth  of  England  and  the  extension  of  her  power.  It  has  been 
carried  on  through  the  ages  by  every  government  which  came  into 
power  in  England,  no  matter  what  its  domestic  policy  may  have  been. 

Englishmen  may  differ  upon  domestic  problems — upon  questions  of 
taxation,  of  education,  of  religion — but  as  against  ail  foreigners  they  are 
a  unit  and  their  policy  is  always  consistently  to  take  advantage  of  all 
openings  given  them  throughout  the  world,  to  make  and  unmake  alliances, 
to  make  and  break  treaties,  to  take  advantage  of  friend  and  foe  in  order  to 


add  to  the  wealth   and  power  of   England  and   to   break  down   those   who 
have   stood   against   her. 

One  of  the  results  of  this  policy  is  seen  today  in  the  proud  boast  of 
England  that  the  sun  never  sets  on  the  British  Empire.  Her  flag  flies 
in  triumph  over  territory  in  every  continent  and  in  most  of  the  important 
islands  of  the  seas.  It  is  carried  aloft  as  the  flag  controlling  the  power 
on  every  sea  of  the  world. 

Her  forts  guard  practically  all  the  great  narrow  waterways  of  the 
earth,  with  the  exception  of  the  Panama  Canal;  and  there  by  reason  of 
her  extraordinary  influence  over  American  legislation,  England  has  acquired 
for  her  commerce  all  the  rights  and  privileges  enjoyed  by  American  com- 
merce, although  the  Panama  Canal  belongs  to  us,  was  built  by  America  and 
paid  for  by  America's  treasures. 

Moulding  Public  Opinion  of  the  World 

Another  and  if  possible  more  important  result  of  this  policy  of  England 
is  the  extraordinary  control  she  has  gained  over  public  opinion  in  every 
country  in  the  world.  Her  soldiers  have  won  battles  for  her  on  land,  her 
admirals  have  won  fights  at  sea,  but  these  are  as  nothing  when  compared 
to  the  triumph  of  her  diplomats.  No  group  of  men  in  the  history  of  the 
world  can  compare  in  skill,  in  adroitness,  in  finesse,  in  influence,  with  the 
diplomats  of  England. 

The  visible  British  Empire  is  an  external  monument  of  their  triumph, 
but  the  invisible  British  Empire,  with  its  control  of  influences  in  every 
government  on  earth,  its  thousand  and  one  ways  of  making  opinion  through 
the  press,  the  magazines,  the  pulpits,  the  schools,  of  every  race  and  in 
every  clime,  is  a  vaster,  more  far-reaching  monument  of  their  finesse,  their 
adroitness,  their  ability  to  make  black  seem  white. 

The  Romans  were  satisfied  with  their  triumph  at  arms.  When  their 
soldiers  had  beaten  down  those  of  the  opponent,  the  generals  and  princes 
of  the  vanquished  were  brought  to  Rome  and  make  to  walk  sub  jugo  through 
the  streets,  chained  to  the  wheels  of  the  chariots  of  the  Roman  Consul. 

The  English  diplomat,  more  skilled  in  human  nature,  more  subtle, 
more  far-reaching  in  his  plans,  is  not  satisfied  with  such  outward  marks 
of  triumph.  He  carries  on  a  campaign  throughout  the  world,  to  justify 
his  actions,  and,  if  possible,  to  ease   his  own  conscience.     As  an   example: 

England  Attempts  to  Destroy  the  Soul  of  Ireland 

Even  though  England  by  brute  force  has  been  in  possession  of  the 
body  of  Ireland  for  centuries,  the  English  diplomat  continues  his  fight 
to  destroy  the  soul  of  Ireland.  Even  though  he  has  proclaimed,  at  the 
birth  of  each  succeeding  generation,  that  he  has  again  conquered  Ireland, 
he  still  keeps  looking  in  vain  for  a  declaration  from  the  people  of  Ireland 
that  they  have  been  conquered. 

He  tells  himself  that  he  has  beaten  the  Irish  because  of  the  thousand 
and  one  cruelties  he  has  practiced  upon  them,  but  he  knows  in  his  heart 
that  he  cannot  conquer  the  Irish  people  while  one  man  and  one  woman 
of  Irish  blood  survive. 

He  knows — if  the  world  does  not  know — that  the  people  of  Ireland 
want  absolute  independence.  He  has  been  able  with  a  thousand  subter- 
fuges to  confuse  the  thought  of  the  world  on  the  question  of  what  Ireland 
wants,  but  he  cannot  deceive  himself. 

The  Balfours  and  Cecils  of  this  generation  know,  as  well  as  Burleigh, 
their  relative,  in  the  days  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  knew,  that  what  Ire- 
land wants  is  to  have  England  get  out  of  Ireland,  bag  and  baggage,  and 
leave  the  people  of  Ireland  to  govern  their  own  country  in  their  own  way. 


Ireland  Is  United  for  Absolute  Independence 

In  the  last  analysis,  the  question  between  England  and  Ireland  is 
simplicity  itself.  There  are  two  nations,  each  of  which  wishes  to  rule, 
govern,  own  Ireland.  One  is  the  Irish  nation,  to  whom  Ireland  belongs, 
for  whom  it  was  set  apart  by  God  Almighty  Himself  from  all  the  rest 
of  the  world. 

The  Irish  people  have  dwelt  in  Ireland  for  thousands  of  years,  distinct 

5 


and  separate  in  a  hundred  ways  from  all  other  peoples,  set  apart  in  nature, 
in  thought,  in  language,  in  custom,  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  marked  by 
the  hand  of  God  with  an  individuality  all  their  own. 

The  Irish  people  have  their  own  strength,  their  own  virtues,  their 
own  gifts,  their  own  weaknesses,  but  differ  from  and  are  different  to  any 
and  all  other  races  of  men.  The  Irish  people  have  absorbed  all  other 
strains  of  blood  that  have  gone  into  the  strange  country  of  Ireland  so 
as  to  have  made  strangers  who  have  gone  there,  after  a  few  generations, 
an  integral  part  of  themselves,  or,  as  an  old  writer  phrased  it,  "more  Irish 
than  the  Irish  themselves." 

The  other  nation  that  wishes  to  own,  govern  and  rule  Ireland  is  the 
English  nation,  belonging  to  England  but  foreign  to  Ireland.  A  nation 
of  great  gifts,  great  failings;  a  nation  that  may  yet,  in  the  Providence  of 
God,  reach  the  point  where  it  can  be  made  to  see  that  it  will  be  greater 
to  conquer  itself  than  to  conquer  a  city  or  a  world;  greater  to  bring  peace, 
contentment  and  opportunity  for  decent  living,  not  to  some  portion  of  it- 
self but  to  all  its  people,  so  that  it  may  not  be  said  in  the  future,  as  it  was 
said  in  the  past,  in  a  recent  report  of  a  British  Commission  that  one- 
third  of  the  people  of  England  did  not  have  a  week  between  themselves 
and  starvation. 

Ireland  Only  Wants  What  Belongs  to  Her 

If  the  question  between  Ireland  and  England  were  between  two 
individuals,  no  jury  sitting  in  any  part  of  America  would  have  any  difficulty 
in  disposing  of  the  matter.  Ireland  does  not  ask  anything  of  England  ex- 
cept to  be  let  alone.  She  wants  onlj'  what  belongs  to  her.  She  wants  only 
that  which  was  her  own.  She  wants  to  govern  herself  and  her  own  people 
in  her  own  way,  according  to  her  own  standards,  and  with  absolute  re- 
ligious freedom  and  political  equality  for  all  of  her  children. 

Ireland  does  not  ask  one  inch  of  territory  that  is  not  contained  within 
the  four  seas  of  Ireland.  She  does  not  ask  to  impose  her  will  upon  a 
single  person  who  dwells  beyond  her  shores.  She  appeals  to  the  free 
peoples  of  the  earth  for  the  opportunity  to  go  her  own  way,  in  peace  and 
harmonj'  with  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  She  offers  not  alone  to  forgive, 
but  so  far  as  she  can,  even  to  forget  past  dealings  with  England  and  to 
dwell  in  peace  and  amitj'  and  concord  with  England  as  a  neighbor. 

But  she  refuses,  as  she  has  refused  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
to  permit  the  stranger — England —  to  govern  her,  to  control  her  resources, 
to  shut  her  off  from  contact  with  the  other  nations  of  the  earth,  to  keep 
her  out  of  her  high  place  among  the  nations.  She  says,  with  the  voice 
of  a  united  people — not  in  a  quarrelsome  way,  but  in  the  quiet  voice  of 
reasoned  judgment — that  as  she  has  fought  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
years  for  her  independence,  so  she  is  prepared  to  fight,  if  necessary,  as 
long  again  in  order  to  attain  that  independence,  and  to  resume  her  place 
among  the  independent  nations. 

Her  sons  say  for  her,  quite  calmly,  with  knowledge  of  the  fact  that 
though  scattered  all  over  the  world,  they  yet  remain  a  great  race,  that 
England  with  all  her  power,  with  all  her  subtlety,  with  all  her  barbarity, 
cannot  destroy  them  or  wipe  them  out;  that  the  fight  which  England 
waged  through  so  many  centuries  can  end  only  when  England  shall  with- 
draw her  last  soldier  from  Ireland  and  leave  that  country,  which  she  has 
been  robbing  for  centuries,  to  govern  and  rule  herself. 

The  diplomat  of  England  has  succeeded  in  many  parts  of  the  world 
as  has  no  other  diplomat  in  the  history  of  mankind,  but  he  has  failed  in 
Ireland  as  absolutely  and  completely  as  any  diplomat  has  failed  in  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

It  may  be  said  without  exaggeration  that  England  has  tried  for  cen- 
turies every  form  of  tyranny,  of  cruelty,  of  inhumanity  in  her  treatment 
of  the  people  of  Ireland.  Her  chief  spokesman,  Lloyd  George,  admitted 
in  the  House  of  Commons  last  year  (1918)  that  England  had  made  an  absolute 
failure  of  her  government  of  Ireland,  and  that  today  she  was  as  unpopular 
with  the  mass  of  the  people  of  Ireland  as  she  was  in  the  days  of  Oliver 
Cromwell. 

Belgian  Atrocities  Duplicated  a  Hundred-Fold  in  Ireland 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  late  great  war,  the  world  was  made  familiar 

6 


with  the  story  of  the  treatment  the  Belgians  received  in  their  own  country 
at  the  hands  of  the  invaders.  It  was  but  the  recital  and  summary  of 
England's  treatment  of  Ireland.  Not  an  atrocity  was  charged  against  the 
Germans  in  Belgium,  not  a  cruelty  practiced,  not  a  crime  committed,  which 
could  not  be  duplicated  one  hundred-fold  in  England's  treatment  of  Ireland. 

Proof  of  this  fact  need  only  be  taken  from  the  admissions  of  English 
historians;  from  the  declarations  of  English  statesmen— the  only  differ- 
ence between  Belgium  and  Ireland  being  that  the  atrocities  in  Belgium 
extended  over  a  period  of  three  or  four  years,  while  the  atrocities  of  Eng- 
land in  Ireland  have  extended  over  the  centuries. 

Belgium  today,  with  a  chorus  of  thanksgiving  from  all  over  the  world, 
has  resumed  her  place  among  the  free  nations  of  the  earth  and  is  to  be 
indemnified  in  so  far  as  money  can  indemnify  a  suffering  country  for 
losses  sustained. 

Ireland  today,  after  seven  and  a  half  centuries  of  greater  suffering 
still  lies  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  England,  while  English  statesmen,  with 
a  smug  hypocrisy  all  their  own,  dilate  with  well  simulated  astonishment 
on  the  dreadful  fact  that  England  cannot  leave  Ireland  to  be  governed  by 
Irishmen,  because,  forsooth,  the  Irish  cannot  agree  politically  among  them- 
selves. 

No  Such  Political  Unanimity  Exists  Elsewhere  in  the  World 

The  fact  is,  however,  that  there  is  in  Ireland  today  a  degree  of  political 
unanimity  greater  than  exists  in  any  other  country  on  earth — very  much 
greater  than  that  which  exists  in  England,  where  Lloyd  George  and  his 
confreres  are  kept  in  power  through  a  political  coalition  between  eight 
different  groups  and  much  greater  than  exists  in  our  own  country. 

Ireland  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  in  which  a  plebescite  has 
been  taken  since  the  armistice  was  declared  last  November  (1918).  The  result 
of  that  plebescite  was  that  the  people  of  Ireland,  by  a  vote  of  more  than 
three  to  one,  declared  in  favor  of  absolute  separation  from  England,  and 
in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Republic. 

This  was  on  the  fourteenth  of  last  December.  On  the  twenty-first 
day  of  January  of  this  year,  the  elected  representatives  of  the  people  of 
Ireland  met  in  convention  at  the  Mansion  House  in  the  City  of  Dublin, 
declared  the  existence  of  the  Irish  Republic,  and  made  an  appeal  to  the 
free  peoples  of  the  earth  for  its  international  recognition. 

In  furtherance  of  that  appeal,  Eamon  de  Valera,  President  of  the 
Irish  Republic,  and  several  members  of  the  Dail  Eireann  (Irish  Congress) 
are  now  in  this  country.  They  seek  to  lay  before  the  people  of  America 
actual  conditions  as  they  exist  in  Ireland  today.  They  ask  a  hearing  in 
order  that  America  may  understand  that  what  the  people  of  Ireland  are 
asking,  is  full  recognition  of  their  status  as  a  free  and  independent 
people. 

The  Irish  people  seek  not  some  redress  of  grievances,  large  or  small, 
but  they  demand  that  England  take  her  grip  off  Ireland  and  leave  the 
country  to  be  governed  by  its  own  people,  in  its  own  way.  The  opinion 
of  America  has  been  aroused  within  the  last  year,  as  it  never  has  been 
before,  in  favor  of  Ireland. 

England  Aims  to  Confuse  the  Issue 

But  the  English  diplomats  with  their  accustomed  skill  are  seeking 
to  confuse  the  issue,  to  prevent  our  people  from  getting  a  clear  under- 
standing of  what  is  at  stake  between  Ireland  and  England. 

It  is  their  task,  their  duty  at  this  time,  not  to  simplify  but  to  com- 
plicate the  issue;  not  to  clarify,  but  to  confuse  the  situation.  Because  of 
that,  there  appear  in  a  hundred  forms,  a  hundred  suggestions  from  England, 
as  to  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

One  group  talks  of  Dominion  Home  Rule,  while  others  talk  of  a 
dozen  varieties  of  the  same  form.  Carson  talks  of  having  conditions 
remain  as  they  are,  while  Smuts — the  "slim"  South  African  who  believes 
all  peoples  should  continue  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the  British  Empire — 
comes  forward  with  that  latest  suggestion  that  Ireland  should  receive  the 
same  recognition  as  that  given  to  Bohemia. 

But  all  ask  for  Ireland  something  which  England  wants — none  offers 
to    Ireland    that    which    Ireland    demands;    because    at    bottom — let    them 


explain  as  they  may — in  any  one  of  the  hundred  devious  devices  English 
statesmen  and  historians  have  used  in  attempting  to  explain  it — the  fact 
is  that  England  remains  in  Ireland  for  England's  profit,  security  and 
power,  and  does  not  intend  to  get  out  of  Ireland  until  she  is  persuaded 
either  by  force,  or  by  the  prospect  of  greater  profit  in  some  other  form, 
that  it  is  to  her  interest  to  do  so. 

England  says  she  remains  in  Ireland  only  for  two  reasons:  First, 
because  Irishmen  cannot  agree  politically,  and  second,  because  Ireland 
cannot  financially  stand  alone.  Neither  statement  has  the  slightest  founda- 
tion in  fact. 

Plebescite  Taken  in  December  Refutes  First  Claim 

The  plebescite  taken  in  Ireland  last  December,  under  the  most  adverse 
conditions,  shows  that  the  people  of  Ireland  have  reached  a  degree  of 
political  unanimity  practically  without  parallel.  With  the  great  English 
army  of  occupation  and  with  all  the  machinery  of  the  government  in 
possession  of  the  English  garrison,  the  people  of  Ireland,  by  a  vote  of 
more  than  three  to  one,  decided  in  favor  of  total  separation  of  Ireland  from 
England. 

According  to  the  standard  American  histories,  Washington  and  his 
associates  were  never  able  to  rally  to  their  support  more  than  a  majority 
of  the  colonists,  if,  in  truth,  they  ever  had  so  large  a  proportion  of  the 
colonists  on  their  side. 

Even  in  the  so-called  convention  presided  over  bj^  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett  and  hand  picked  by  Lloyd  George,  there  was  a  majority  of 
40  to  29  in  favor  of  the  proposed  plan  then  given,  which  would  have  gone 
beyond  the  scheme  of  miscalled  settlement  now  proposed  by  many  respon- 
sible spokesmen  for  England.  This  is  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is 
considered  that  a  large  number  of  the  members  of  that  body  were  selected 
by  Lloyd  George  and  his  associates  for  the  express  purpose  of  having 
them  fail  to  agree  to  any  settlement. 

If  the  situation  were  not  one  of  so  much  importance,  it  would  be 
farcical  to  hear  Lloyd  George  talk  about  the  failure  of  the  Irish  to  agree, 
when  he  himself  remains  in  power  in  England,  through  a  coalition  made 
up  of  eight  different  groups,  and  was  the  direct  cause  of  the  so-called 
failure  to  which  he  refers. 


England  Remains  in  Ireland  for  Her  Own  Financial  Gain 

England  dares  to  say  that  she  remains  in  Ireland,  because  Ireland 
cannot  financially  stand  alone.  This,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  last  j^ear 
England  made  at  least  $225,000,000  from  her  control  of  Ireland.  She 
collected  from  Ireland  and  on  Irish  goods,  during  the  preceding  year,  a 
revenue  of  more  than  34,000,000  pounds.  She  spent  on  what  she  is  pleased 
to  call  the  "government"  of  Ireland,  about  13,000,000  pounds,  leaving  a 
profit  to  herself  of  21,000.000  pounds,  an  equivalent  of  about  $105,000,00a 
profit  gathered  to  herself  through  taxation  of  Ireland. 

Ireland  did  with  the  rest  of  the  world  the  previous  year  a  business 
of  $820,000,000,  according  to  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  though  other  spokes- 
men for  England  say  this  estimate  is  entirely  too  low.  Of  the  foreign 
business  done  by  Ireland,  more  than  95%  was  done  with  England.  Why? 
Because  England  has  so  completelj'-  cut  Ireland  off  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  that  she  is  unable  to  send  goods  abroad  except  through  England, 
or  to  buy  abroad  except  through  England,  thus  being  compelled,  against 
all  economic  law,  to  sell  in  the  cheapest  market  and  to  buy  in  the  dearest 
market. 

It  is  only  fair  to  presume,  as  a  result  of  this,  that  the  English  trades- 
man, who  is  as  shrewd,  as  adroit,  as  far-seeing  in  his  own  field  as  is  the 
English  diplomat  in  the  field  of  government,  made  a  profit  of  at  least 
15%  on  the  turn-over  of  this  business  with  Ireland. 

Ireland  thus  gave  to  England,  in  additions  to  the  taxation,  a  profit 
of  $120,000,000,  thus  making  for  England  in  a  single  year  a  profit  of  vast 
proportions — a  profit  of  $225,000,000  from  her  control  of  Ireland.  That 
sum  represents  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  reasons  why  England 
wishes  to  remain  in   Ireland.    She  is  there  as  a  matter  of  profit.     She   is- 

8 


there  as  a  matter  of  interest.  But,  above  all  other  reasons,  strong  and 
selfish  as  they  are,  England  remains  in  Ireland  because  she  regards  her 
continued  control  of  Ireland  as  vital  and  essential  to  her  continued  control 
of  the  seas. 

England's  world  dominance  depends  upon  her  control  of  the  seas, 
and  as  Ireland  stands  between  her  and  the  ocean,  she  must  control 
Ireland  in  order  to  reach  the  seas  and  this  is  the  reason  above  all  why- 
she  insists  upon  Ireland  in  subjection.  In  the  last  analysis,  it  is  the  naked 
rule  of  might. 

England  Uses  Ireland  for  a  Great  Dairy  Farm 

Much  has  been  made  by  the  spokesmen  of  England  of  the  claim  that 
Ireland  must  remain  attached  to  England  because  England  is  the  chief 
market  for  Irish  goods,  and  the  country  through  which  Ireland's  com- 
merce with  the  world  must  be  carried  on,  if  Ireland  is  to  seek  a  world 
market. 

No  more  damning  indictment  could  be  brought  against  England  than 
is  brought  by  this  bit  of  English  propaganda.  The  simple  outstanding 
fact  is  that  England  does  not  buy  one  dollar's  worth  of  goods  from 
Ireland  which  she  could  buy  cheaper  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 
Further,  because  of  her  absolute  control  of  the  seas  of  the  world,  and  of 
her  economic  contact  with  every  other  country  on  earth,  England  does 
not  sell  to  Ireland  one  single  article,  no  matter  how  insignificant,  for  which 
she  could  find  a  better  price  in  any  other  part  of  the  globe. 

England  uses  Ireland  for  a  great  dairy  farm,  a  broad  grazing  land, 
in  order  that  food  may  be  provided  at  the  lowest  possible  price,  for  the 
teeming  millions  in  the  industrial  centers  of  England.  She  uses  Ireland 
as  a  dumping  ground  for  the  excess  products  of  her  factories — excess 
products  which  are  turned  out  by  her  manufacturers  either  to  meet  special 
competition  in  some  other  country,  or  in  order  to  keep  her  industrial  workers 
employed  so  that  they  may  not  have  time  to  think  too  much  about  the 
grievances  and  the  industrial  problems  that  lead  to  revolution. 

England  Destroyed  the  Population  of  Ireland 

The  world  recently  rang  with  English  propaganda  in  the  form  of 
stories  of  the  tyrannies  of  the  Czar  of  the  Russians  and  of  the  governments 
of  the  Central  Empires.  These  empires  have  gone,  and  properly  gone, 
the  ways  of  every  other  tyrant  of  past  history,  but  the  fact  remains  that 
at  their  worst,  these  powers  did  not  keep  the  population  of  Alsace-Lorraine, 
of  Schleswig-Holstein,  of  Galicia,'from  greatly  increasing  in  numbers  and 
in  prosperity. 

Nor  did  the  brutalities  and  outrageous  excesses  of  power  of  the  suc- 
cessive Czars  of  the  Russias  prevent  Russian  Poland  from  growing  greatly 
in  population  and  in  wealth.  Yet  in  the  seventy  years  from  1845  to  1915, 
the  population  of  Ireland,  under  what  English  spokesmen  are  pleased  to 
call  the  benign  reigns  of  Victoria,  of  Edward  VII  and  of  George  V,  has 
decreased  from  more  than  eight  and  one-quarter  millions  to  4.390,219. 

Government-Made  Famines  to  Destroy  the  People  of  Ireland 
In  that  time,  in  spite  of  the  cruelties  and  misgovernment  practiced 
upon  the  people  of  those  continental  countries,  no  charge  has  been  made 
and  proved — as  in  the  case  of  Ireland — of  a  government-made  famine 
in  which  more  than  one  million  people  starved  to  death  in  a  land  of 
plenty  and  another  two  millions  were  sent  across  the  seas  to  seek  in 
foreign  countries  an  opportunity  to  live — an  opportunity  of  which  they 
were  deprived  in  their  own  land  by  reason  of  the  inhumanity  of  an  alien 
government. 

England  has  systematically  broken  down  every  effort  made  to  build 
up  the  industries,  to  develop  the  resources  of  Ireland,  while  her  spokes- 
men sing  in  chorus  that  all  the  wrongs  of  Ireland  are  ancient  wrongs 
and  that  Ireland  is  today  governed  by  the  same  laws  that  govern  Eng- 
land and  therefore  the  Irish  people  should  be  contented  with  their  lot 
and  cease  to  cry  for  liberty. 

These  assertions  do  not  bear  the  slightest  investigation  of  an  impar- 
tial mind.     Ireland  has  been  turned  into  a  grazing  country  by   the  laws 


of  England  and  by  acts  of  the  English  government.  The  system  of  laws 
made  for  a  highly  complex  industrial  state  like  England  are  utterly  out 
of  place  in  a  country  whose  main  pursuit  is  made  to  be  agriculture. 

Great   Harbors   of  Ireland  in  Idleness 

The  shipping  controlled  by  England  cuts  Ireland  ofiF  from  all  contact 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  and  keeps  in  idleness  twenty  of  the  greatest 
harbors  of  Europe.  It  prevents  the  modern  development  of  the  ports  of 
Cork,  Limerick,  Galway,  Sligo  and  Dublin,  ports  which  centuries  ago  were 
great  trading  ports,  carrying  on  extensive  commerce  with  the  countries 
of  continental  Europe. 

The  railroads  of  the  smaller  and  poorer  country  are  controlled  by 
the  railroads  of  the  richer  and  larger  country,  so  that  it  cost  until  recently 
as  much  to  send  a  barrel  of  flour  across  from  Galway  to  Dublin  as  it  did 
to  send  it  from  Chicago  to  Liverpool. 

Most  of  the  banks  of  Ireland  are  bought  up  or  controlled  by  the  banks 
of  England,  with  the  result  that  the  deposits  are  not  invested  in  Ireland 
for  the  development  of  its  resources  or  the  upbuilding  of  its  industries, 
but  are  placed  at  the  disposal  of  English  manufacturers  and  business  men, 
to  aid  in  their  schemes  for  exploiting  the  rest  of  the  world  and  beating 
down  the  industrial  rivals  of  England  in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States 
of  America. 

The  Irish  Mercantile  Marine,  which  for  centuries  carried  on  a  com- 
merce with  continental  Europe  and  America,  has  been  wiped  out  of 
existence  by  adverse  English  laws.  It  has  been  replaced  only  by  ships 
which  bring  Ireland's  goods  to  England  and  England's  goods  to  Ireland, 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  the  Irish  market,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
the  private  monopoly  of  England. 

England,  roughly  speaking,  is  one  and  one-half  times  the  size  of 
Ireland,  in  square  miles.  When  the  Act  of  Union  was  laid  upon  Ireland, 
January  1,  1801,  the  population  of  Ireland  was  almost  six  million  and 
the  population  of  England  was  less  than  nine  million.  Today,  the  popu- 
lation of  England  is  over  thirty-six  millions,  and  the  population  of  Ireland, 
according  to  the  latest  English  census,  is  4,390,219.  At  the  same  date 
which  marks  the  application  of  the  Act  of  Union  to  Ireland,  the  population 
of  Scotland  was  1,700,000,  while  today,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  it  is 
larger  than  the  population  of  Ireland. 

Ireland   Viciously   Misrepresented   Abroad 

If  Ireland  had  been  satisfied  to  become  the  contented  province  of  Eng- 
land and  to  abandon  her  fight  for  liberty  and  her  desire  for  independence; 
if  she  would  consent  to  become  absorbed  into  England,  to  become  a  part  of 
the  English  people,  she  would  undoubtedly  enjoy  a  prosperity  that  would 
mean  all  that  the  word  implies. 

It  is  because  of  the  fact  that  she  will  not  consent  to  such  an  arrange- 
ment, it  is  because  she  regards  the  ideal  as  of  more  consequence,  even  in 
this  life,  than  she  does  the  material,  that  Ireland  must  continue  to  be 
misrepresented  abroad.  If  England  has  her  way,  her  rule  will  continue 
in  Ireland  until  the  day  and  that  generation  when  the  British  Empire, 
following  all  the  other  mighty  empires  of  the  past,  shall  hear  the  hour 
of  her  doom  strike  and  shall  be  compelled  to  give  way  to  the  onward 
march  of  events  which  will  carry  its  end  into  the  mighty  empire  and 
bring  freedom  to  the  peoples  all  over  the  earth  who  are  oppressed  by  it. 
Thoughtful  observers  the  world  over  agree  that  that  day  is  not  far 
distant. 

England  has  time  after  time  overrun  Ireland  with  her  armies,  with 
her  confiscators,  but  she  has  never  conquered  Ireland  and  unless  all 
signs  by  which  the  future  may  be  gauged  fail,  she  never  can  conquer 
Ireland. 

Today,  England  faces  an  Irish  race  scattered  all  over  the  world,  totaling 
thirty  millions  of  people.  She  may  boast  that  the  sun  never  sets  on  the 
British  Empire,  but  she  must  also  admit  that  it  never  sets  on  the  man 
of  Irish  blood.  Wherever  he  has  gone,  into  whatever  country  he  may 
have  been  absorbed,  he  remains  instinctivelj'-  hostile  to  the  British  govern- 
ment and   the   things  for  which  that  government  stands. 

10 


He  was,  as  American  historians  tell  us,  the  first  to  raise  the  banner 
of  revolt  against  England  in  this  country.  According  to  that  scholarly 
volume,  "A  Hidden  Phase  of  American  History,"  by  Michael  J.  O'Brien, 
38%  of  the  rank  and  file  of  Washington's  Army  were  Irishmen  or  sons 
of  Irishmen — the  most  determined,  the  most  unfaltering  enemy  England 
had  in   America. 

He  harbors  no  enmity  against  the  English  people.  He  pities  rather 
than  condemns  them  for  the  injustice  under  which  they  suffer.  He 
understands  the  economic  slavery  which  is  imposed  upon  them — but  he 
is  the  untiring,  the  unfaltering  enemy  of  the  conscienceless  chicanery 
and  corrupting  materialism  which  are  the  chief  weapons  of  English 
diplomacy. 

America  Was  Led  Into  the  War  to  Put  an  End  to  Autocracy 

England  may  control  statesmen,  she  may  thunder  from  the  pulpits 
and  she  may  speak  through  the  impersonal  editorials  of  the  press  in 
various  countries.  She  may  purchase  poets,  she  may  hire  apologists,  she 
may  rewrite  school  histories,  but  ever  and  always  there  will  be  men  rising 
up  througliout  the  world  to  thwart  her  schemes,  to  prevent  the  consum- 
mation of  her  carefully  laid  plans,  to  point  out  the  facts  of  history  and 
to  arouse  the  liberty-loving  people  of  the  world  to  a  realization  of  the 
fact  that  there  can  be  no  freedom  on  earth  until  the  autocracy  which  hides 
behind  the  mask  of  navalism  is  as  completely  broken  as  was  that  which 
was  covered  by  the  garb  of  militarism. 

England  may  succeed — as  she  has  succeeded — in  cajoling  or  out- 
maneuvering  the  spokesmen  of  free  peoples  at  the  Conference  of  Versailles; 
she  may  write  the  terms  of  peace  there  as  she  wrote  them  at  Vienna  a 
century  before — but  she  cannot  stifle  the  conscience  of  the  world.  She 
cannot  satisfy  America  with  the  assertion  that  the  war  has  been  won 
because  German  and  Russian  militarism  has  been  broken. 

America  was  led  into  the  war  to  put  an  end  to  autocracy,  and  that 
means  autocracy  in  every  form.  America  entered  the  war  to  break  down 
special  privileges  in  all  governments  and  to  see  that  not  only  militarism, 
but  its  twin  sister,  navalism,  was  broken  beyond  repair. 

If  America  had  not  gone  into  the  war  it  would  have  ended  in  an 
entirely  different  way.  We  threw  our  strength,  our  youth,  our  vigor,  our 
idealism  into  the  scales  and  we  freely  expressed  our  belief  that  when  we 
won — for  there  was  no  "if"  about  it,  once  we  went  into  the  war — there 
would  be  an  end  to  autocracy. 

We  declared  there  would  be  self-determination  for  all  peoples;  that 
there  would  be  freedom  of  the  seas — that  freedom  for  which  America 
through  all  her  history  has  contended  and  for  which  she  waged  one 
victorious  war. 

America  won  the  war.  Sir  Douglas  Haig's  comments  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  America  threw  her  soul,  her  honor,  her  ideals  into  the 
winning  of  the  war,  and  America  will  not  now  be  satisfied  until  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  gather  in  the  fruits  of  that  victory. 

There  can  be  no  just  or  permanent  peace  if,  after  destroying  one 
form  of  autocracy,  we  leave  another  form  more  strongly  entrenched  than 
ever  and  resting  upon  a  firmer  foundation.  The  plain  people  throughout 
the  world  will  not  rest  while  two  great  empires  remain,  their  strength 
buttressed  and  fortified  by  a  peace  which  able  spokesmen  of  these  empires, 
with  superior  courage,  superior  diplomacy,  with  greater  skill,  impose  upon 
mankind. 

America  magnificently  won  the  war.  America  kas  failed  to  make  the 
peace.  America's  spokesmen  laid  down  splendidly  the  terms  of  peace 
which  were  to  satisfy  the  world  and  which  were  agreed  to_  in  advance 
by  the  spokesmen  of  England,  of  France,  of  Italy.  But  America's  spokes- 
men have  been  outplayed,  outclassed,  by  the  veteran  diplomats  of  the 
latter  countries. 

America  was  satisfied  with  the  proposed  terms  of  peace.  She  is 
utterly  dissatisfied  with  the  proposed  Peace  Treaty  and  its  accompanying 
League  of  Nations  as  drawn  by  Cecil  and  Smuts  and  now  urged  by  the 
President   of  the  United   States   as   something  behind  which   he   may   hide 

11 


the   discomfiture   resulting   from   his   encounter   with    the   skilled   diplomats 
of  the  old  world. 

Gloss  over  the  story  as  one  may,  the  fact  remains  that  out  of  the 
Conference  at  Versailles  there  have  emerged  two  great  powers  greatly 
strengthened,  the  Island  Empires  of  England  and  Japan.  These  two 
empires  are  now  seizing  and  taking  to  themselves  the  choicest  spots  on 
earth,  adding  tremendously  to  their  already  swollen  power. 

The  War,  Fought  for  Democracy,  Enthrones  Autocracy 

England,  whose  spokesmen  assured  us  one  hundred  times  during 
the  war  that  she  sought  no  territory,  has  had,  in  her  own  accustomed 
style,  forced  upon  her  "unwilling"  shoulders  huge  strips  of  land  which 
nominally  belonged  to  the  German  Empire  but  which  really  belonged 
to  their  inhabitants.  These  people,  as  the  result  of  the  war,  are  simply 
transferred  from  one  group  of  exploiters  to  another  and  a  more  expe- 
rienced group. 

Forty  million  Chinese  Republicans  were  torn  from  their  own  country 
with  the  immense  province  of  Shantung  and  turned  over  to  the  Empire 
of  Japan,  thus  making  it  larger,  in  point  of  population,  than  the  United 
States  of  America. 

England,  which,  before  we  entered  the  war,  on  the  visit  of  Balfour 
to  Washington,  was  in  the  throes  of  despair  and  on  the  verge  of  defeat, 
can  now  promptly  proclaim  through  her  mouthpiece.  Lord  Cecil,  that  she 
emerges  from  the  war  richer  and  stronger,  actually  and  relatively,  than 
any  other  country  on  earth. 

The  war,  fought  for  Democracy,  may  end  with  a  peace  which  greatly 
increases  the  power  of  Autocracy.  The  war,  fought  to  bring  freedom 
of  the  seas,  ends  with  England  in  unquestioned  control  of  all  the  oceans 
of  the  earth.  The  war,  fought  to  bring  self-determination  to  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth,  has  the  doctrine  of  English  pre-determination  applied 
to  some  parts  of  the  continent,  in  order  temporarily  to  break  up  and 
permanently  to  cripple  her  European  rivals.  This  doctrine  is  applied  to 
Asia  in  such  a  way  that  the  Japanese  pre-determination  may  apply  to  the 
continent  of  Asia  to  the  end  that  she  may  eventually  absorb  China  and 
be  ready  with  her  intimate  ally  and  close  friend,  England,  for  any  emergency 
that  may  arise  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

The  Two  Great  Empires  Insist  That  America  Guarantee  Their  Possessions 

Not  satisfied  with  their  own  power  to  retain  that  which  the  self- 
satisfied  and  temporary  spokesman  for  America  has  permitted  them  to 
absorb,  England  and  Japan  are  insisting  through  Clause  X  in  the  pro- 
posed Leagiie  of  Nations  that  America  shall  guarantee  for  all  time  the 
present  territorial  integrity  of  the  two  remaining  empires  on  earth. 

One  little  knows  the  fierce  passion  for  democracy  which  burns  in 
the  breast  of  the  average  American  if  he  thinks  that  such  a  scheme  will 
ever  succeed.  For  one  hundred  and  forty-three  years  America  has  been 
fighting  with  ever  increasing  vigor  the  battle  of  democracy. 

America  has  ever  been  to  the  forefront  in  the  struggle  for  human 
rights.  She  has  sought  to  put  an  end  in  every  way  to  the  special  privi- 
leges of  the  few.  She  favors  the  rights  of  the  manj'-  and  she  will  not 
now  permit  any  man  speaking  for  her  to  reverse  her  position,  to  destroy 
her  old  ideals,  or  to  prevent  her  from  carrying  on  the  struggle  until 
democracy  shall  finally  triumph  and  the  last  stronghold  of  autocracy 
be  destroyed. 

Shantung  a  Monstrous  Act 

The  transfer  of  Shantung  with  its  forty  millions  of  people  from  the 
great  young  democracy  of  China  to  the  absolutist  Empire  of  Japan  is 
a  monstrous  act,  indefensible,  high-handed,  un-American.  The  attempt 
to  have  us  guarantee  the  territorial  integrity  of  England  and  Japan  is  a 
monstrous  and  a  cowardly  act,  an  attempt  not  alone  to  truckle  to  the 
strong  but  to  trample  upon  and  destroy  the  rights  of  the  weak.  It  would 
make  us  a  party  to  every  act  of  tyranny  that  hereafter  was  perpetrated 
throughout  the  world. 

But  history  shows  that  even  if  it  were  possible  for  the  great  Senate 
of  the  United   States   to   be  false  and  recreant   to  its   trust,  a   thing   like 

12 


this  could  not  be  permanently  done.  It  is  asking  us  to  do  the  impossible. 
All  history  teaches,  all  experience  shows,  that  nothing  is  static  in  nature, 
that  it  is  impossible  for  one  generation  to  so  impose  its  will  on  the  world 
as  to  prevent  a  change  in  the  boundaries  of  countries  or  in  the  fortunes 
of  nations. 

The  League  of  Nations  and  the  Holy  Alliance 

A  century  ago  a  "Holy  Alliance"  undertook  to  do  the  very  thing  that 
is  again  being  attempted  today,  but  not  only  is  the  "Holy  Alliance" 
referred  to  nowadays  bj^  words  of  contempt  and  contumely,  hut  the  very 
governments  which  brought  the  treaty  into  existence  are  themselves  but 
memories. 

The  old  or  little  men  who,  for  the  moment,  from  time  to  time  control 
the  destinies  of  mankind  may  think  themselves  able  to  stop  the  progress 
of  mankind  and  impose  their  wills  upon  advancing  generations.  But 
history  shows  that  even  the  few  great  outstanding  figures  in  the  history 
of  the  centuries  were  not  able  thus  to  act  for  the  future.  And  the  last 
half-century,  with  its  seven  great  empires  thrown  into  the  discard,  shows 
how  Fate_  laughs  at  the  puny  efforts  of  man  to  govern  the  future  or  control 
its  destinies. 

The  world  is  just  entering  upon  a  great  era  of  growth  and  recon- 
struction, yet  this  is  the  time  when  an  old  man,  an  older  man  and  a  very 
old  man  in  whose  hands  Fate  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  whimsically 
placed  the  strings  of  the  future,  chose  to  abandon  the  high-sounding  battle 
cries  upon  which  the  war  was  waged  and  won,  and  to  make  another 
ill-conceived  and  badly  executed  balance  of  power  under  the  name  of  the 
League    of    Nations. 

To  do  this,  Clemenceau  has  tried  to  turn  the  wheels  of  time  backward, 
tried  to  go  back  to  the  Europe  of  Louis  XIV,  breaking  down  the  great 
peoples  of  the  continent  who  outnumber  and  outbreed  the  French,  and 
to  set  up,  all  over  the  continent,  a  series  of  buffer  states  that  would 
prevent  the  growth  of  strong  rivals  to  France,  and  leave  her  in  the  position 
of  being  the  dominant  military  power  of  the  continent. 

England,  running  true  to  form,  is  entirely  contented,  for  the  moment, 
to  have  France  resume  her  old  place,  among  the  nations,  so  long  as  she 
may  see  her  economic  rivals  on  the  continent  broken  into  bits  and  reduced 
to  the  position  of  impotence  and  poverty. 

England  herself,  true  to  her  predatory  instincts,  seizes  in  the  name 
of  civilization  and  justice,  territories  almost  continental  in  area,  rich  in 
mineral  and  other  natural  resources,  to  be  added  to  her  already  immense 
empire.  She  emerges  from  the  war  not  only  the  greatest  empire  in  extent 
that  the  world  has  ever  known,  with  a  monopolistic  control  of  articles 
essential  to  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  mankind,  but,  through  her 
unquestioned  control  of  the  seas,  she  will  strive  for  a  practical  monopoly 
of  the  commerce  of  the  world. 

England  emerges  from  the  war  with  but  one  economic  or  industrial 
rival  upon  earth,  these  United  States  of  America,  whose  public  opinion 
she  flatters  herself  that  she  controls  and  whole  activities  she  at  least  has 
been  able  to  guide  so  far  as  to  make  us  forgive,  if  we  did  not  forget,  our 
previous  experience  with  her. 


England  Seeks  to  Flatter  America 

Tossing  everything  into  the  scales  in  the  last  great  contest  in  which 
she  broke,  at  least  for  generations  to  come,  the  continental  industrial 
rivals  which  were  ousting  her  from  the  markets  of  the  world,  England 
has  won  decisively  and  absolutely,  as  far  as  empire  is  concerned,  and 
now  looks  with  complacency  upon  the  task  before  her  of  cajoling  and 
flattering   America. 

Meanwhile  she  carries  on  an  economic  war  against  us  which  will  shut 
us  out  from  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  which  will  gradually  put  us 
on  the  defensive  in  the  fight  that  England  is  waging  to  recover  the  financial 
supremacy  of  the  world,  which  she  fondly  believes  we  have  but  momen- 
tarily taken  from  her. 


One  plea  that  she  has  made  calls  attention  to  her  tremendous  sacrifices 
in  the  contest  which  she  keeps  reminding  us  was  fought  for  our  safety 
as  well  as  for  her  own  interests,  and  which  many  of  her  spokesmen,  like 
Sir  Douglas  Haig,  now  remind  us,  since  she  is  no  longer  in  danger,  was 
won  by  her  and  not  by  us. 

England  is  shutting  out  the  products  of  our  manufacturers  from  her 
territories  and  so  far  as  possible  is  shutting  out  our  commerce  in  every 
corner  of  the  globe  and  is  depending  upon  her  control  of  the  seas  to 
eventually  shut  us  out  from  most  of  the  foreign  markets  and  leave  us 
in  the  position  where  our  manufacturers  must  be  content  to  sell  their 
products  in  so  much  of  our  own  markets  as  England  may  choose  to 
leave  to  us. 

This  is  in  no  sense  an  exaggeration  of  what  she  seeks  and  of  what 
she  hopes.  She  relies  upon  the  skill  of  her  diplomats  to  bring  this  state 
of  affairs  about.  She  has  very  largely  monopolized  rubber,  wool  and 
other  essential  products  of  the  world.  She  is  seeking  every  day,  with 
ever  increasing  chance  of  success,  to  monopolize  the  oil  fields  of  the 
world,  while  all  the  time,  with  sophisticated  casuistry,  she  keeps,  through 
a  chorus  of  a  thousand  voices  raised  in  the  press,  the  pulpits  and  the 
schools  of  America,  assuring  us  that  she  alone  in  all  the  world  is  our 
constant  friend,  that  but  for  her  and  her  chivalrous,  unselfish  efforts  we 
would  have  been  overrun  by  some  of  the  continental  powers  which  were 
seeking  this  very  world  power  which  she  now  possesses  to  the  full. 

She  would  have  us  believe  that  she  fought  unselfishly  in  the  war 
for  the  very  purposes  for  which  our  President  says  we  entered  the  war, 
yet  her  first  act  after  the  war  was  won  by  us  was  to  say  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  freedom  of  the  seas  could  not  be  even  considered  at  Paris,  and 
utterly   unconsidered   it   was   and    still   remains. 

She  said  she  favored  self-determination  for  all  oppressed  peoples 
and  agreed  with  the  President  when  he  said  that  no  people  must  live 
under  a  government  not  chosen  by  themselves.  She  must  cynically  smile 
to  herself  when  she  has  the  Peace  Conference  practicallj^  adjourn  after 
having,  with  the  help  of  that  self-determination  cloak,  broken  her  rivals 
into  pieces  without  any  effort  having  been  made  to  apply  that  doctrine 
to  Ireland,  to  Egypt,  to  India,  or  to  any  of  the  other  countries  of  which 
she  is  in  possession  with  only  the  title  that  a  robber  has  to  his  prey. 

Attempts  to  Make  Over  the  Map  of  the  World  in  the  Dark 

She  said  she  favored  open  covenants  of  peace,  openly  arrived  at,  and 
yet  the  "Holy  Alliance"  did  not  attempt  to  make  over  the  map  of  the 
world  with  the  same  secrecy  behind  which  these  three  gentlemen  hid 
themselves  at  Paris.  And  so  one  might  go  through  all  of  the  points  and 
find  that  English  skill  had  escaped  or  English  cynicism  had  flouted  the 
warcries  used  in  arousing  mankind  to  save  England,  but  which  were  in 
the  way  when  an   English  peace  had  to  be  made. 

The  Englishman  has  a  genius  for  diplomacy.  Not  content  with  being 
saved  from  destruction,  not  content  with  unprecedented  gains  in  terri- 
tory, in  wealth,  in  prestige  throughout  the  world,  he  now  seeks  to  undo 
what  he  regards  as  mistakes  of  the  past  and  to  recover  by  mental  ability 
that  which  he  lost  a  century  and  a  half  ago  by  force  of  arms.  In  his 
self-satisfaction,  he  takes  no  account  of  the  fact  that  the  thirteen  colo- 
nies, if  they  had  continued  as  colonies,  could  not  have  begun  to  save 
him  as  the  forty-eight  states  did  actually  save  him,  as  he  himself  must 
admit. 

England  Aims  to  Undo  the  Work  of  the  Revolution 

He  wishes,  now  that  his  peril  is  for  the  moment  past,  to  undo  the 
work  of  the  Revolution,  to  destroy  the  great  experiment  in  government 
which  the  fathers  set  up  upon  these  shores,  and  by  one  stroke  set  back 
the  hands  on  the  clock  of  time  for  centuries.  He  wishes  to  do  this,  in 
order  that  the  special  forms  of  privileged  autocracy  which  governs  England 
may  regain  control  of  this  country,  and  with  its  mighty  strength  and 
unlimited  resources  bring  about  that  junction  of  the  English-speaking  races 
which  his  agents  like  Carnegie  and  Rhodes  have  foretold  and  for  which 
they  have  labored  for  two  generations. 

14 


He  has  hoped,  because  of  his  easy  control  of  things  at  Paris,  that  he 
would  find  that  the  dead  hand  of  Rhodes  had  actually  won  the  victory. 
But  he  was  astounded  to  find  not  alone  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
standing  like  adamant  against  the  proposed  League  of  Nations,  but  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  people  of  America  aroused  as  never  before,  not 
only  to  defend  American  rights,  but  to  do  what  he  complains  of  as  an 
insolent  thing — to  interfere  in  "domestic"  problems  of  English  politics. 

Washington   Still  the   Seat   of   the  American   Government 

He  is  horrified  to  find  that  in  spite  of  huge  expenditures,  that  in  spite 
of  the  British  propaganda  of  Northcliffe,  Parker  and  others  of  that  ilk, 
America  refuses  to  be  made  again  into  a  colony,  and  that  interest  in  the 
freedom  of  the  seas  has  been  aroused  in  America  as  never  before. 

He  has  been  brought  to  believe  during  the  pressure  of  the  war  that 
American  public  opinion  was  only  the  echo  of  English  public  opinion,  and 
is  astounded  now  to  find  that  his  complete  victory  at  Paris  is  likely  to  be 
turned  into  complete  defeat  at  Washington,  where,  in  spite  of  his  hopes 
to  the  contrary,  and  to  his  utter  consternation,  he  finds  the  real  seat  of 
American  government  still  continues  to  be  found. 

The  Real  Strength  of  England 

England,  while  hastening  to  assure  us  in  a  hundred  ways  that  she  had 
no  selfish  interest  to  serve  in  asking  to  have  the  League  of  Nations  made 
operative  and  the  integrity  of  the  British  Empire  guaranteed  by  the  power 
and  resources  of  the  United  States,  has  unwittingly  shown  her  own  weak- 
ness. More  and  more  thoughtful  observers  throughout  the  world  are  able 
to  read  in  that  demand  the  real  opinion  of  English  statesmen  as  to  their 
own   strength. 

As  a  flash  of  lightning  in  a  storm  enables  the  observer  in  a  second 
to  see  his  way  through  the  darkness,  so  the  request  for  such  guarantee 
by  Lord  Cecil  has  revealed  the  real  weakness  of  England,  instead  of  the 
apparent  strength  which  he  and  his  group  have  been  teaching  us  to 
observe. 

It  is  at  once  made  clear  that  the  England  which  must  call  on  the 
world  to  guarantee  its  possessions  is  in  a  bad  way  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  It  is  an  admission  that  it  can  no  longer  hope  to  call  upon  the 
strength  of  other  countries  in  its  hour  of  peril  in  order  to  preserve  it,  as 
it  called  the  world  into  arms  against  France  under  Napoleon  and  against 
Germany  under  Wilhelm. 

In  spite  of  its  censorship,  the  rumblings  of  industrial  labor  troubles 
tvith  miners  and  transport  workers  and  railway  men  are  being  heard  in 
the  land.  The  uorisings  in  India  and  Egypt,  the  dissatisfaction  in  Australia 
and  in  Canada,  and,  above  all,  the  settled  determination  upon  the  part  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  to  take  at  their  face  value  the  promises  of  Wilson, 
Clemenceau,  Lloyd  George  and  Orlando,  and  to  insist  upon  absolute  self- 
determination,  are  matters  which  are  calling  the  attention  of  mankind  to 
the  fact  that  there  is  and  there  can  be  no  freedom  on  earth  while  this  dis- 
tended and  gigantic  appetite  called  the  British  Empire  continues  to  threaten 
and   to   prey  upon   mankind. 

America  Is  at  the  Parting  of  the  Ways 

The  parting  of  the  ways  has  come  for  America.  Either  we  remain 
true  to  our  ideals,  true  to  the  traditions  of  the  past,  still  the  moral  leader 
of  mankind  and  the  hope  of  the  oppressed  people  of  the  earth,  or  we 
join  with  the  privileged  class  of  England  and  become  one  of  the  predatory 
powers  of  the  world. 

Either  we  continue  to  lead  the  forces  of  Republicanism,  whether  they 
oppose  the  Central  Empires  of  the  continent,  the  Czars  of  the  Russias; 
whether  they  stand  against  the  Cecils  and  Balfours  of  England  or 
the  Mikado  of  Japan,  and  bring  hope  and  cheer  to  the  downtrodden  peo- 
ple of  Ireland,  and  we  stand  for  the  preservation  of  American  rights  or 
we  join  forces  with  Lloyd  George,  that  artful  dodger  of  English  politics, 
in  his  efforts  to  further  deceive  the  people  and  put  off  until  another 
generation   the   settlement  of    the    question    of    Ireland.     The    question    of 

15 


Ireland,  it  must  be  remembered,  can  only  be  settled  right  when  Ireland 
regains  her  independence  and  takes  her  place  once  more  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth. 

Like  everything  else  human,  America  cannot  remain  static.  America 
must  either  advance  or  retire.  It  must  continue  to  lead  the  forces  of 
democracy  in  their  onward  march  to  absolute  freedom,  or  it  must  join  the 
forces  of  autocracy  and  seek  to  snatch  liberty  from  the  other  nations  of 
the  world. 


America  Is  Asked  to  Enter  Into  an  Entangling  Alliance 

We  are  asked  now  to  abandon  the  advice  given  us  by  our  first — and 
one  of  our  greatest  Presidents — against  entering  into  entangling^  alliances 
with  other  powers.  Not  alone  should  we  refuse  to  abandon  this  advice, 
but  we  should  more  than  ever  make  clear  to  the  world  our  unfaltering 
determination  to  abide  by  it  and  to  make  it  one  of  the  fundamental  planks 
in  our  foreign  policy.  By  standing  by  it  in  the  past  we  have  grown 
great  and  prosperous,  masters  of  our  own  destinies,  arbiters  of  our  own 
fate. 

We  have  been  free  to  enter  wars  and  free  to  remain  at  peace,  accord- 
ing to  the  exigencies  of  the  hour  and  according  to  what  we  conceived  to 
be  our  own  interest  and  the  best  policy  for  the  protection  of  the  liberties 
of  mankind.  We  have  been  free  to  govern  our  actions  by  the  best  light 
and  information  which  we  could  obtain  upon  questions  at  the  hour  of 
action. 

Our  liberty  of  action  has  not  been  foreclosed  by  reason  of  any  com- 
mitment made  in  advance  by  those  who  had  passed  off  the  stage  of  action 
or  were  no  longer  in  a  position  to  speak  for  the  m.ajority  of  the  people 
of  our  countr3^  In  other  words,  we  have  always  been  in  the  position  of 
being  governed  by  the  living  will  of  the  present,  rather  than  by  the  dead 
hand  of  the  past.    - 

Not  alone  every  mandate  of  interest,  but  the  high  call  of  idealism 
should  counsel  us  to  remain  in  that  position  and  not  commit  ourselves 
to  any  alliance  which,  obeying  the  passion  and  meeting  the  whim  of  the 
hour,  could  commit  those  who  come  after  us  to  labors  and  sacrifices  which 
they  should  not  be  asked  to  undertake  except  at  their  own  free  will  and 
upon  good  cause  shown  to  them  at  the  hour  of  sacrifice. 

We  are  asked  now  to  be  satisfied  with  a  declaration  of  the  ^Monroe 
doctrine,  which  according  to  many  thoughtful  observers,  weakens  and 
jeopardizes  rather  than  strengthens  that  cardinal  principle  of  American 
diplomacy.  In  this  hour  when  a  peace  conference,  called  into  existence 
for  the  purpose  of  making  peace,  did  not  content  itself  with  settling  the 
questions  at  issue  between  the  belligerents,  but  went  up  and  down  the 
world  seeking  problems  it  might  settle,  we  should  extend  and  strengthen, 
rather  than  weaken,  the  doctrine  laid  down  by  James  Monroe. 

We  should  insist  that  the  western  hemisphere  be  not  invaded  by  any 
power  from  the  east;  that  no  old-world  possessions  held  here  are  to  be 
increased,  and  we  should  also  insist  upon  the  absolute  withdrawal  from 
this  territory  of  the  flag  of  every  empire  or  monarch}'. 

The  British  Flag  Should  Be  Compelled  to  Follow  the   Other  Flags  from 

Our  Shores 

What  is  sacrosanct  about  the  British  Empire  that  it  continues  to  rule 
vast  sections  of  the  American  continent  after  all  other  empires  have  left 
its  shores?  The  flags  of  Russia,  of  Spain,  of  Portgual,  of  Denmark  have 
been  withdrawn  from  this  hemisphere.  Why  should  we  not  now_  msist 
that  the  flag  of  England  should  follow  the  others  and  leave  here  m  this 
hemisphere,  dedicated  for  all  time  to  liberty  and  republicanism,  only  the 
flags  of  the  free? 

Why  should  not  our  great  neighbor  on  the  north,  which  Cecil  un- 
doubtedly hopes  some  day  to  use  as  a  weapon  to  smite  us,  should  the 
economic  war  now  being  waged  between  the  countries  ever  reach  the 
acute  stage  of  militarv  or  naval  warfare,  or  if  there  ever  should  come  a 
conflict  between  England's  ally,  Japan,  and  ourselves— why  should  not 
that    great    country    have    an    opportunity   of    taking    its    place   among    the 

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republics  of  the  earth,  or  even,  if  it  chooses,  of  joining  our  country  and 
thus  bridging  the  gulf  which  separates  us  from  our  great  territory  of 
Alaska. 

The  ties  which  bind  the  people  of  Canada  to  us  are  every  day  increas- 
ing in  number  and  in  strength.  The  ties  of  trade  which  bind  us  are 
natural  and  are  varied  in  form.  The  Great  Lakes  that  lie  between  us 
are  not  intended  to  separate  us,  but  should,  by  a  thousand  ties  of  com- 
merce, draw  us  more  closely  together.  Great  numbers  of  our  people  come 
from  the  same  racial  stocks  and  in  the  late  war,  according  to  reports  com- 
ing from  ever  increasing  sources  through  our  returned  soldiers,  our  soldiers 
found  a  dozen  ways  in  which  they  resembled  one  another  for  every  way  in 
which  either  found  that  they  resembled  the  British  soldiers. 

Chamberlain  Has  Said  That  an  Adjoining  Republic  Is  a  Menace 

Thoughtful  observers  in  the  United  States  as  well  as  in  Canada  realize 
that  our  interests  are  in  the  western  rather  than  in  the  eastern  hemisphere, 
and  that  the  views  of  an  ever-increasing  number  of  Canadians  with  rela- 
tion to  the  future  of  Ireland,  the  future  of  Shantung,  are  those  of  a  majority 
of  the  people  of  America  rather  than  those  of  the  governing  body  of 
England. 

The  people  of  Canada  are  essentially  a  freedom-loving  people,  aside 
from  what  is  pleased  to  call  itself  the  governing  class,  which  seeks  for 
special  privileges  like  the  same  class  in  England.  Canadians  desire  lib- 
erty for  themselves  and  would  like  to  see  the  blessings  of  liberty  given 
to  every  people. 

More  than  that,  if  there  be  anything  in  the  repeated  declarations  of 
Joseph  Chamberlain  in  his  attempts  to  justify  the  rulsbing  out  of  the 
two  little  republics  of  South  Africa  that  republican  institutions  adjoin- 
ing British  territory  were  a  menace  to  Britain,  the  governing  class  in 
England  can  look  upon  the  continued  existence  of  the  American  republic 
only  as  a  menace  to  England  and  we  have  now  the  right  to  ask  of  her, 
having  saved  England,  that  as  an  evidence  of  her  good  faith  in  saying 
that  she  is  a  friend  of  liberty,  that  she  withdraw  her  flag  from  this  con- 
tinent and  leave  it  to  be  entirely  dedicated  to  liberty  and  freedom. 

This  action  should  apply  not  alone  to  Canada,  but  to  the  British  West 
Indies  and  to  all  other  territory  in  both  continents  that  England  holds  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere.  Her  holding  of  lands  here  is  a  menace.  If  there  is 
any  truth  in  the  statements  of  her  apologists  that  she  holds  these  lands 
only  at  a  loss  and  because  of  her  unselfish  interest  in  their  inhabitants,  let 
her  withdraw.  We  can  guarantee  their  independence  under  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  and  if  she  holds  them  only  for  use  as  a  base  in  war,  it  must  only 
be  as  against  us  and  we  should  now  insist  that  she  give  them  up.  Such 
withdrawal  would  be  a  practical  renunciation  on  her  part  of  any  policy  of 
hostility  or  unfriendliness  to  America. 

Man  Is  Sighing  for  Peace 

The  late  war  aroused  mankind  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  without 
regard  to  the  boundaries  of  a  country  or  the  lines  of  race,  war  is  a  curse 
to  mankind;  that  it  takes  not  only  millions  of  a  generation  to  death  and 
leaves  other  millions  subject  to  sickness  and  disease  as  an  aftermath,  but 
it  imposes  on  the  future  generations  a  back-breaking  burden  of  taxation 
which  means  countless  hardships  and  privations,  while  it  brings  only  to 
the  specially  privileged  peoples  in  every  country  immense  fortunes  which 
break  down  the  foundations  of  liberty  and  sap  the  principles  on  which 
freedom  exists. 

Without  regard  to  race  or  religion,  man  is  sighing  for  peace.  He 
realizes  that  war  is  an  abnormal  condition,  that  peace  is  the  normal  con- 
dition, and  men  are  seeking  as  they  have  never  sought  before,  to  insure 
a  peace  that  will  prevent  and  destroy  war. 

Hopes  Based  on  the  Peace  Conference  Vanish  Like  a  Dream 

Mankind  lived  in  the  hope  that  the  Peace  Conference  was  to  be 
a  setting  for  the  ending  of  all  wars.     Peoples  were  to  be  taken  from  the 

17 


thralldrom  of  their  aggressors,  natural  boundaries  were  to  be  established 
between  states,  armaments  were  to  be  destroyed,  cannon  were  to  be  made 
into  plowshares,  and  the  fourteen  points  of  President  Wilson  were  to  be 
made  the  basis  of  an  enduring  peace. 

The  Peace  Conference  has  practically  adjourned  and  all  the  hopes 
that  were  based  upon  it  are  passing  into  oblivion  like  the  illusions  of 
dreams.  But  the  mass  of  mankind  is  more  than  ever  insistent  that  there 
must  be  an  end  to  human  destruction  and  to  the  awful  butchery  and 
suffering  that  modern  war  spells  for  humanity.  It  has  been  driven  into 
their  minds  that  only  by  freedom  to  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  can  peace 
come,  putting  an  end  to  the  rule  of  the  few  and  by  bringing  about  govern- 
ment by  the  many,  bringing  at  once  liberty  to  man  and  an  end  to  all 
war. 

There  may  be  for  a  short  time  a  brief  respite  for  those  who  remain 
in  power,  though  they  have  deceived  the  people  who  have  seen  promises 
solemnly  made,  lightly  broken.  But  no  just  or  permanent  peace  can  be 
made  until  the  purposes  to  which  the  American  people  set  their  hands 
when  they  entered  the  war  have  been  attained,  until  autocracy  in  all  its 
forms  has  been  destroyed,  until  not  alone  the  militarism  that  was 
breaking  the  back  of  Europe  but  the  navalism  which  is  oppressing  and 
controlling  the  whole  world  shall  be  destroyed  and  the  right  of  self- 
determination  shall  be  given,  not  alone  to  some,  but  to  all  the  peoples 
of  the  earth. 

A    Court   of    Nations 

A  court  of  Nations  will  come  in  its  own  due  time  that  will  embrace 
all  the  people  of  the  earth,  that  will  see  to  it  that  all  peoples  are  free, 
and  that  will  see  to  it  that  the  world  war  will  actualh'  bring  a  permanent 
peace.  Such  a  Court  will  exalt  justice  and  will  destroy  tyranny,  but  it 
will  be  a  real  Court,  open  to  all  peoples,  and  not  an  unreal  League  which 
is  only  another  name  for  an  Anglo-American  Alliance,  a  Cecil-Smuts  plan 
to  exalt  autocracy  and  enslave   mankind. 

Every  red-blooded  man  favors  such  a  Court  of  Nations  as  he  favors 
the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  counsel  of  perfection,  but  the  more 
intensely  he  favors  such  an  ideal  the  more  he  objects  to  and  abhors  the 
hypocrisy  which  would  steal  the  ideal  in  order  to  cover  a  treaty  of  alliance 
that  would  fasten  the  robber  grip  of  England  on  all  the  world. 


The  Guarantees  of  Ireland 

Having  set  forth  the  claims  of  Ireland  to  independence,  her  demand 
and  her  right  to  be  free;  having  exposed  the  hypocrisy  of  England  in  her 
varied  attempts  to  confuse  the  issue,  having  torn  away  the  mask  behind 
which  England  hoped  to  securely  hide  from  the  gaze  of  the  world,  let  us 
see  what  Ireland  offers  to  the  world  as  an  evidence  of  her  good  faith. 

The  people  of  Ireland  seek  for  themselves  a  form  of  government  which 
would  do  justice  to  all  the  people  within  the  four  shores  of  Ireland.  They 
seek  to  set  up  a  government  representing  equality  to  all,  injustice  to  none. 
They  demand  and  will  insist  upon  political  equality  and  religious  freedom 
for  all  the  people  of  Ireland. 

They  insist  that  the  majority  must  rule,  but  that  the  rights  of  political 
equality  and  religious  freedom  shall  be  given  to  all  members  of  the 
minority  as  well  as  of  the  majority. 

The  people  of  Ireland  believe  that  the  minority  is  entitled  to  guarantees, 
but  not  to  control.  They  are  ready  to  embody  a  guarantee  of  these  rights 
in  their  constitution,  as  they  have  been  embodied  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  United   States. 

They  are  ready  to  adopt  these  things  which  made  for  success  in 
America  and  to  avoid  those  things  which  were  found  to  be  mistakes 
or  errors. 

Contrasts  Ireland  and  America 

As  a  result  of  the  Revolution  in  America  estates  were  confiscated 
and  men  were  exiled.  The  people  of  Ireland,  however,  are  ready  to  say 
to  the  small  group  in  Ulster  who  say  they  cannot  remain  as  an  integral 
part  of  the  Irish   people   that   they  would   part  with   them  with   regret,  but 

18 


will  guarantee   to  them,   if  they   choose   to   sell,   the   full   market  value   of 
all  property  which  they  own  in  Ireland. 

The  people  of  Ireland  ask  every  man  of  whatever  blood,  of  whatever 
religion,  who  is  now  in  Ireland  to  remain  in  Ireland  on  terms  which 
will  insure  absolute  equality  for  all.  They  point  out  that  there  is  no 
instance  in  its  history  of  religious  persecution  or  racial  intolerance  due 
to  the  majority  of  the  people  of  Ireland;  that  wherever  there  has  been 
persecution  it  has  been  by  the  minority,  urged  on  against  the  majority 
by    the    English    government. 

The  people  of  Ireland  point  out  that  in  every  section  of  the  country 
in  every  generation,  Protestants  of  different  sects  or  religious  persuasions 
have  been  put  forward  as  leaders  by  a  majority  of  the  Irish  people, 
called  to  the  highest  elective  office  within  the  gift  of  the  majority  of  the 
people.  They  urge  that  no  fairer  way  of  judging  the  future  can  be 
found  tiian  that  furnished  by  the  experiences  of  the  past. 

They  are  willing  at  all  times  to  accord  to  others  the  rights  which 
they  insist  upon  for  themselves.  They  demand,  without  further  delay, 
that  their  present  rights  shall  be  recognized  by  the  world  and  that 
international  recognition  shall  be  given  to  the  republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment established  in  Ireland  after  a  plebiscite  held  on  her  shores  last 
December,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  English  army  of  occupation  and 
under  conditions  which  held  the  machinery  of  government  at  that  time 
in  the  hands  of  Great  Britain. 

Why  should  England,  that  cried  out  with  such  strength  against 
injustice  in  Belgium,  be  permitted  to  maintain  and  continue  her  rule 
of  might  in  Ireland?  Even  her  apologists  admit  that  England's  rule  in 
Ireland  is  based  only  upon  her  bayonets  and  cannon. 

How  can  England  satisfy  the  conscience  of  the  world  with  her 
explanation    that    what    is    wrong    in    Belgium    and    in    Alsace    is    right    in 

Ireland?     She   says   that   the   people  of  Ireland   should    not    cry    out    for 

liberty    because,    forsooth,    they   are  today    enjoying    a    larger   measure    of 

prosperity   than   they   formerly   had.  Why   should   they   not   have   it?     Is 

it  not  the  result   only  of  their  own  thrift,  their  own  industry,  their  own 
labors? 

The  apologists  of  England  say  that  Ireland  did  an  immense  business 
with  that  country  last  year — that  this  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  Ireland's 
cry  that  she  is  badly  governed!  How  typical  was  Clive  of  the  English 
g'overnment  of  all  times  when  he  said,  after  he  had  been  accused  of 
robbing  India  of  immense  treasure,  that  when  he  saw  the  wealth  of  the 
country  he  was  astonished  at  his  own  moderation!  England's  statesmen 
feel  that  it  is  right  to  steal  Irish  sheep  so  long  as  they  return  a  chop  to 
the  Irish  owner. 

The  proposition  is  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  and  conscience  of  the 
world  and  in  spite  of  the  marvelous  system  of  propaganda  which  the 
English  diplomat  has  built  up,  he  cannot  prevent  the  cry  of  Ireland  for 
freedom  from  resounding  in  all  parts  of  the  world  and  coming  back  to 
plague  him  until  it  is  satisfied  by  having  justice  done  to  Ireland. 

The  English  governing  class  are  the  Bourbons  of  modern  days.  They 
learn  nothing,  forget  nothing.  Let  them  beware  lest  the  aroused  public 
opinion  of  mankind  shall  sweep  them  as  it  swept  their  German  and 
Russian  cousins  into  oblivion  and  break  into  bits  the  British  Empire, 
which  is  the  last  bulwark  of  autocracy  against  the  on-rushing  tide  of 
liberty  and  democracy. 


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